1. Juicer: Website and Event Social Media Display
A website is the hub of any business, especially for nonprofits where donors can check out what your organization is about, discover fundraising events, and make donations. Giving them an insight into your nonprofit’s social media following can help paint an even clearer picture of the community and charities your organization supports.
Juicer is a social media aggregator that acts as a social media advocacy tool for nonprofits. Juicer works by curating all of your nonprofit’s social media accounts into one simple feed you can embed on your website or display publicly at an event. Your fans and donors’ comments can also be displayed on your feed which boosts authenticity.
Juicer’s feed can be completely controlled with automatic filter and moderation features and new posts will be curated daily, hourly, or every 10 minutes depending upon your package.
Juicer offers a free plan which allows you to curate up to 3 social media sources and will pull in and display new posts daily. Paid packages offer more social account integrations and faster update frequencies starting at $19/month.
2. Buffer: Social Media Scheduling and Management
As we mentioned above, managing multiple social media platforms, engaging, posting, scheduling, and reporting can take up a lot of time and resources your organization may not have. Luckily there are many tools out there today that take a lot of the manual labor out of nonprofit social media management and automate it.
Buffer is one of the most popular social media marketing tools used by social media professionals across all industries. Because of its simplicity and efficiency, it’s great for social media marketing for nonprofits.
You can customize content for each social network and Buffer will suggest the best posting times to really maximize your content calendar. It schedules posts and analyzes performance as well as providing a variety of social engagement features and analytics across channels.
Buffer offers a free package with management of up to three social media accounts, 10 posts, and 1 user per month. This is perfect for nonprofits who are just starting out and new to social media management.
For the larger, paid subscriptions, Buffer does offer a 50% discount to all registered nonprofit organizations.
3. Buzzsumo: Content Ideation and Management
Constantly coming up with fresh social media content for nonprofits or keeping up with your competitors can be challenging. Buzzsumo is a content identifier tool that can assist in finding engaging content that drives support and donations for your nonprofit’s cause.
It allows you to uncover content ideas by scouring competitors, influencers, and the buzz happening around your industry and nonprofit. You can set up keyword alerts to track trending topics in your industry.
Buzzsumo’s pricing plans range from $79+/month with a 7-day free trial if you want to give it a test drive.
There is a heavily discounted social media plan for registered nonprofits using their BuzzSumo Pro Plan available by request.
4. Hashtagify: Social Hashtag Trends and Ideation
Hashtags allow you to search and group content under one unifying theme and have been instrumental in driving support for many nonprofit and charitable causes over the past few years.
Hashtagify is a fantastic hashtag search and reporting tool that allows you to discover the most popular hashtags related to a specific topic or cause your nonprofit supports. With the tool, you can track popularity, trends over time, related hashtags, and most active nonprofit organizations and social media influencers.
Hashtagify basic hashtag search tool is free and each of their paid monthly or yearly plans comes with a 7-day free trial if you want to test it out. Their subscription plans vary in pricing anywhere starting at $19/month annually.
Related: The best hashtag generators
5. Canva: Social Media Design
A social media post accompanied with an image or graphic is 10 times more likely to attract engagement than a simple text only post. That can be a banner ad, infographic, meme, or a touched-up candid photo. But let’s face it, not everyone has the time to become a Photoshop whiz or graphic designer.
Canva is a fantastic tool for everyday social media marketers who just need to get some quality images formatted for social and websites. It is extremely easy to use and loaded with tons of pre-formatted templates designed for common social media sizes and images that allow for quick and flawless execution.
Canva’s basic plan is free for everyone but if you want more features their Pro or Enterprise plan starts at $12.95/month. Though Canva Pro is free for nonprofits.
Benefits of Social Media for Nonprofits
The power of using social media for nonprofits and charities is invaluable. Raising awareness and garnering support around your cause can literally skyrocket your engagement and donations overnight through social sharing.
There are many examples of nonprofits who have used social media successfully. Just take a look at the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge back in 2014 that went viral on Facebook. The idea caught on like wildfire and in 4 weeks there were 1 million Facebook videos and $94 million dollars raised for the cause.
Implementing a successful social media campaign for your nonprofit will:
1. Increase Supporters and Engagement
Social media gives a charity or nonprofit organization the ability to directly connect and engage with their supporters and donors. People who are engaged are more likely to continue to be involved with your organization and share your information with their network.
2. Boost Fundraising Awareness and Donations
Many charity donors turn to social media to help them spread the word about fundraising for their favorite cause. Many rely on their social network to get involved and make donations. Having a presence on social media gives people another resource to discover what your organization is about and what their donation will support.
3. Encourage Community Involvement
Using location hashtags, Facebook events and joining local social groups can help you build a stronger presence within your community.
4. Help You to Connect with Local Heroes and Influencers
By identifying those within your social network who have a big social following can help you significantly expand the reach of your nonprofit organization. Start with your current donors and supporters to identify who you already know and start networking with them.
